Moving On
by HeisenbergWD
Summary: After narrowly escaping a sticky situation in Savannah, Kenny meets a new group, consisting of three other people. What challenges await this new group during the daily struggle to survive in the apocalypse?
1. Prologue- The Restaurant

_(Author's note: After writing this first chapter I became aware that in the game Sarita says something that implies that Kenny had a beard when she found him, meaning it was a while after Savannah. Since I was already done with this chapter when I found this out and it's just one small line in the game, I simply chose not to care. One mildly contradicting line in the game will not ruin the experience of reading this fan-fic.)_

After what had felt like hours of running, Kenny ducked into an abandoned restaurant he was passing and finally stopped to catch his breath. He felt very weak, and didn't know why until he looked at his arms and realised how scratched up they were. He wouldn't have been surprised if he found out that he had been bitten during all the commotion. Kenny began thinking about the rest of his group- Lee, Omid, Christa... Clementine.

Just as he was thinking this, Kenny felt a surge of pain in his legs and fell over. His arms weren't the only thing that had been damaged, and now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off, the pain from running more than he had ever run before was catching up to him.

Kenny heard voices outside. There were people there, talking to each other. They didn't sound like anyone he knew, so he perceived them as a threat. He pulled out his pistol, only to remember that he had spent the last bullet already. After a quick mutter of "Fuck", Kenny saw a corpse hunched over a table with a shotgun in its hands and a shotgun-induced hole in its head. Kenny stood up, leaning on a table for support, and walked painfully towards the table with the shotgun beside it.

The strangers' voices were getting louder. The strangers entered Kenny's field of view before he could take the gun. There were three of them- two men and a woman. Kenny took the shotgun and tried to aim it at the strangers, but it was very heavy, and in Kenny's weakened state he dropped the gun almost immediately. He began to feel sick. His vision got blurry and out of focus. The woman seemed to be saying something to him, but it was incomprehensible to him. Kenny closed his eyes...

**-The Strangers-**

A group of three was walking along an old, cracked road. "I'm fucking hungry", James moaned, breaking the silence. "We all are", Sarita replied, "There's an old abandoned restaurant just up ahead, we can see if there's something we can eat there". "But", interjected Jack, James' brother, "wouldn't the meat have all rotted by now?" James let out a low growl, followed by his blunt response of "I don't give a fuck 'bout what we eat, long as it's not rat shit".

"Yeah, I knew we shouldn't have refused those mormons offering food" came Jack's reply. Sarita smirked. "Oh, and you'd have been willing to listen to them talk about their religion for an hour? In all honesty... I never thought door-to-door missionaries would still be a thing in the zomb-"

Sarita paused as she saw a scruffy-looking man point a shotgun at her and almost immediately drop it. Suddenly, the man's eyes went out of focus. Sarita tried to prevent the man from falling unconscious. "Hey, stay awake! Who are you?! I'm talking to..."

The man collapsed. "Well!", James exclaimed incredulously. "That was... something. So, this is the place, yeah? All fuckin' right, time for some food!"

James ran into the back room like a small child in a toy store. Sarita was still looking at the unconscious man on the floor. "Maybe we should take him with us", said Sarita. Jack was shocked. "But... he tried to kill us!" "Correction- he pointed a gun at us. He was scared... wouldn't you be scared too? He seems to be in really poor health; maybe we should take him to the room". Jack was about to object again, but Sarita interrupted before he could say anything. "When you two and your sister found me-"

"Don't... fucking... talk about her...", said Jack through gritted teeth. "...Fine", he said, "Let's take him back to our place. But if he just gets up and tries to kill us-"

"That won't happen".

"_If_ it does happen... we're kickin' you out of the group. Deal?"

Sarita bit her lip. Was it really worth it, to save this one man's life?

"Deal."


	2. The Jackpot

Kenny woke up in a warm bed in a hotel room, with a stiff neck, a headache and sore arms and legs. It took him a moment to remember what had happened. He was still wearing torn and bloody clothes, which were also covered in sweat and very smelly. The three people from the restaurant were in the room, talking again. The woman saw Kenny looking at her and stopped talking to tell the other two that he was awake.

The three briefly introduced themselves. "So", James continued after the introductions, "Now that that's out of the way... this piece o' shit hotel room is our current base of operations, sad but true. We had a pretty nice place before but, well, shit happened and we had to come here. In fact, we only got here last night, shortly after we found you. Anyway, since we don't wanna just live in one room eating nothing but canned peaches and beans all the time, we're hoping to find somewhere else to live... and I think we've found the jackpot."

"There's a house nearby that some bandits took over. It's pretty easy to identify, there's usually loud music blasting and they've an old RV just outside. Reinforced doors, too, so the dead can't get in. Our target is the RV. It'll be locked, so we're gonna have to either hotwire it or steal the key... you wouldn't happen to know how to hotwire a car, would you, mister, uh..?"

"Kenny... my name's Kenny. I've worked with engines in the past, but sadly I don't know how to hotwire a car. I could do some repairs, if needed."

"Alright then, thievery it is. They seem to be drunk and partyin' all the time, so it should be pretty easy. We go in, we assure 'em we're not gonna pull anythin' funny, which'll be a lie, we find the key and we get the fuck outta dodge."

The group of four left the hotel room and subsequently the hotel. Sarita was carrying the shotgun that Kenny had failed to fire before and James had a pistol in his pocket. Those seemed to be the only weapons the group had.

"Holy shit", Kenny exclaimed, wide-eyed, looking back at the hotel they were leaving. "What, what the fuck is it?!", James asked.

"That... that's the Marsh House!"

"Yeah, thanks Sherlock, so fuckin' what?"

"It's just... my old crew, they were headed here. Before I... got split off from 'em. They were headed to the Marsh House."

"Eh, they're prob'ly dead"

"James!" Sarita yelled.

"What?! I'm just sayin', we never ran into anyone else in there! I mean, there was that one room with the dead guy..."

"Let's go, dammit", said Jack grumpily.

"I'm just sayin'..."

"Yeah, well, you've said plenty, so shut it. This Kenny guy clearly doesn't need your shit right now."

The group walked wordlessly to the bandit-occupied house. There were zombies trying to tear down the front door, but it was reinforced, so their efforts were fruitless. James took out a pistol and Sarita aimed her shotgun. They fired upon the zombies, killing them and clearing a path to the front door.

James gulped and knocked on the front door. The man who opened the door was clearly high. "Heyyyyyyyyyy... wait, you're not on the list... who are you guys again?"

"We're, uh... dealers. Slingin' some hash for y'all. Can we come in?"

"Ohhhhh, okay... c'mon in, pal..."

The bouncer walked away, accidentally bumping into the wall. James grinned at the others and they all went into the house silently. There were many people sitting around tables. Some were eating pizza, some were drinking, some were just talking. There were also some guys sharing a bong in the corner of the room. Every single one of them had one thing in common- they each had a gun. Shotguns, pistols, rifles... everyone had somehing.

The group looked around but nobody could see any car keys. That is, until a woman came out of another room, with a pistol in one hand and the key dangling tauntingly from its keyring in the other.

"Looking for this?"

Kenny recognised the woman and was immediately filled with hatred.

James put his hands in the air, as if to surrender. "Woah, woah, no... we're, uh, we're not stealin' any car keys, nosiree! We're, uh... mormons! We're mormons! Do you have a moment to talk about-"

Lilly fired a warning shot, in response to which James yelped and stopped talking.

"Well", said Lilly, her face a mixture of anger and cruel glee, "Look what we have here. A pathetic Florida redneck and his band of misfits trying to take the RV back. You're outnumbered this time, Kenny..."

As soon as she said this, Kenny realised that there were now well over a dozen bandits aiming guns at him and his group.

"Hey, look", Jack started, "I don't know what kinda bad blood you two have got goin' on, but I'm sure we can negotiate..."

"Negotiate, my ass", came Lilly's blunt response. "I don't give a fuck about you three, but I'm not satisfied until this piece of shit is dead in the ground..."

"Wait", said Kenny, "there's just one thing I don't get. There wasn't enough fuel in the RV to get to Savannah, how did you..."

"I met a few guys along the way. I did some favours for them... after which, they gave me fuel, and now I'm the leader of their bandit gang. And now we're here. Any last words, before I do to you what I did to that piece of shit out on the road?"

"Yeah... I got some last fuckin' words for ya; Go fuck your-"

Before Kenny could finish his sentence, gunfire erupted.


	3. Hold That Thought

The house occupied by the bandits often had loud music blasting, which attracted zombies to it. The front door and back door had been specifically reinforced so that they could not get in.

Harry, a bandit in the group headed by Lilly, had a sick feeling in his stomach, and had to go and vomit. He stumbled over to the bathroom and tried to open the door, but it was locked. He knocked on the bathroom door, no response. Harry spoke to the person on the other side. "Hey! How long'll ya be in there?! I need to puke!"

Still no response. Someone must have locked it and passed out.

Harry decided that logically, the next best place to return the contents of his lunch to the earth would be out the back. Distracted by sickness, headache and loud music, Harry hastily opened the back door. He was then promptly eaten by zombies.

Nobody else noticed the zombies until they entered the foyer, where an intense standoff was taking place. One bandit looked up and noticed the zombies, panicked and started shooting at them. This startled everyone, especially Kenny, who had been saying something when it happened.

The panicked and confused bandits all turned around and started firing upon the zombies. Lilly yelled at the others, asking how the dead got in, and while everyone was distracted, James grabbed Lilly by the arm, took her pistol, pushed her out the front door, shoved her to the ground and pointed her own gun in her face. Sarita, Jack and Kenny followed him out and closed the door. Jack, the last one out, tried to hold the door closed in case the bandits tried to open it.

James looked from Lilly's gun to Kenny. "Here, Ken, d'you wanna do it?"

Kenny forcefully grabbed the gun. "My pleasure". Lilly looked at Kenny with a cold glare. "I knew I shouldn't trust you from the moment I first saw you... I told them- Carley, Doug, Glenn... but they didn't listen..."

"And now we're here," echoed Kenny, "any last words?"

Lilly opened her mouth to speak.

"Hold that thought", Kenny interrupted her, right before he shot her in the face. He took the pistol and the key to the RV, which had fallen when James pushed Lilly out of the house.

A bandit tried to open the door, but Jack kept holding it closed to buy time. "I can't hold it very long", said Jack, struggling with the door, "Get in the RV, now!"

Angry bandits were yelling in the house. Sarita rushed to the RV, opening the door and quickly climbing into the driver's seat. Kenny followed her into the passenger's seat, and as James was running to the RV, he tripped and fell. He got up as fast as he could and started to tell his brother it was time to let go of the door and run, but just then, the bandits set a new plan into motion: if they couldn't open the door, they'd remove the man holding it closed.

A storm of bullets erupted from behind the door, many of them entering Jack's body. Jack fell to the ground. James called his name as the bandits kicked the door open, but Kenny yelled "There's no time! Get in if ya wanna live!"

James wasn't listening. He took a step towards Jack, who was lying on the ground like a discarded piece of rubbish. Bandits started shooting at James, but fortunately the front of the RV provided cover and he ducked into the side of the RV pretty quickly. As soon as James was in, Sarita stepped hard on the acceleration pedal and drove as fast as she could.

"Look", said Sarita, "I'm sorry about Jack. He was a good man, but there was no way he was going to survive and there was no time to do anything."

James didn't respond. He took out his pistol and started fiddling with it, as if he was bored. Sarita gave Kenny a worried look- this behaviour was very unusual and out of character for James. She wanted to change the topic. "So, Kenny", she started, "...you smell awful!"

Kenny let out a quick chuckle. "But seriously", Sarita continued, "how are you holding up? You were in very bad shape at the restaurant..."

"Oh, well... I have a terrible headache, made even worse by that loud music and gunfire; My legs feel like shit; I feel like I'm about to vomit; My arms and legs are really itchy; this shirt feels real heavy, with all the blood and sweat and all; Apart from all that, I'm fine. Glad I ain't the one drivin' though. To be honest, I just wanna go back to sleep."

"Well, you can get some rest soon. We're heading to an old diner, Gil's Pitstop... I'm worried about James, though. He's not usually this quiet."

"He's goin' through grief... give him some time and I'm sure he'll get over it."

Kenny looked at Lilly's pistol, Sarita's shotgun on the floor, and James, who was still messing with his pistol. All three had guns now.

Kenny was about to fall asleep, when he noticed something. "Hey", he said to Sarita. "That walkie-talkie in your pocket..."

"Oh, I know what you're going to ask... no, there isn't another one. We can't use it for long-range communication. Sorry. There was something that looked like a radio in the room where we found it, but really, I just grabbed this because it looks pretty."

"No, it's not that. A friend of mine had one just like it... but it had a little flower sticker on the front."

Sarita took the walkie-talkie out of her pocket and showed Kenny the other side, the side with the flower sticker on it. Kenny's eyes widened. It was the same walkie-talkie that Lee had been carrying. Kenny feared the answer, but he felt like he had to ask. "Uh... where'd you get that talkie anyway?"

"When we got to the Marsh House, we explored some of the rooms, trying to see what we could scavenge. We found this in a room that had a dead man in it. I... can't imagine how this must feel for you. I'm sorry."

_Maybe the dead man's not Lee_, thought Kenny. _Maybe Lee killed Clem's kidnapper an'... left the talkie behind? No, that doesn't make sense. Why would he do that?_

Thinking of his friends, Kenny started talking again. "So, there was a dead man in the room... anyone else? Was there a girl?"

"No, just a man."

"Describe him for me."

"Well, he was, uh... dead, and, uh... white..."

Kenny let out a sigh of relief. This was enough information for him to know that it wasn't Lee.

"Oh", said Sarita with a smile, noticing Kenny's reassurance, "I guess your friend wasn't white, huh?"

"Correction- _isn't_ white. Now I know he's out there..." _Lee_, thought Kenny, _you wonderful sonofabitch. I knew you'd make it out. I wonder where you are right now..._


	4. Three Weeks Later

"This is fucking bullshit."

David's words echoed along the dusty road.

"We've been walking down this goddamn road for... how long has it been now? And it's all so we can get some supplies that probably aren't even fucking there anyway. Fucking Ash, sending us out here like this, this is bullshit. Why couldn't we drive in that cushy van we stole? That'd be fucking nice."

"Oh, cry me a river, Dave. Look, this is the place. See? Gil's Pitstop."

"Fuck off, Barry. At least say you feel the same way."

"Would you two stop fighting?!", interjected Hugh, "We're here, now let's look for the shit we came for."

"Hey", said Dave, "That RV over there... you don't think it's the one..?"

"No. I don't. There are a lot of them out here, it's just a coincidence. Now shut the fuck up and look for those goddamn supplies."

The bandits approached the diner but stopped in their tracks when they saw a figure through a window. It was a man getting up and stretching his arms.

"Hey, that's the fucking guy! The one the whore wanted to kill back in the old base!"

"Fuck... Alright, let's get the Hell outta here and tell Ash. He sure as shit won't be happy, though."

"Won't he, though? It's hard to tell with that crazy bastard."

**Later that day...**

"What in the seven Hells do you fucking mean _'We saw the assholes who killed Lilly and stole the RV at the pitstop'_?!"

"I... I mean exactly what I said, sir. I'm s-sorry, I-"

"Don't fucking talk back to me, motherfucker! Besides, even if you're telling the truth, we've got bigger fuckin' fish to fry. Someone's stolen one of our fucking guns! That's right, somebody in this fucking house is a traitorous thieving bastard, and when I find out who the fuck it is, I'm gonna rip his balls off with my bare damn hands and shove them down his throat!"

Dave's face was as red as a tomato from embarrassment. He knew that Ash had a short temper, but he'd never seen him this angry before.

Hugh spoke up. "Um... Sir... if we don't get these guys, they could be gone tomorrow. We may never see such an opportunity for revenge again. I think this is a great time to show them that nobody fucks with Ash's Bandits."

Ash was still furious, but he tried to calm down and clear his mind to process everything.

"Alright", he said after a silence that seemed like it would last forever, "You're right. We can deal with the traitor another time; Let's pay these sons of bitches a li'l visit."

**...**

"Soup. It's always fuckin' soup, isn't it? Soup, soup, soup. Nothin' to eat but soup. Tomato soup, mushroom soup, it's all the fuckin' same."

"Yes, Kenny, it's always soup... I'm sorry, that's just all we have! It's better than nothing, at least. If we hadn't eaten all that pizza that was in the RV so quickly, maybe we wouldn't have to eat soup for every meal every day now."

Kenny and Sarita's argument about food was abruptly put to a halt by the sound of a gunshot and a scream of pain from the other room.

"James!", Kenny called out, extremely worried about the increasingly Ben-like member of the increasingly small group.

Kenny and Sarita ducked. Sarita peeked over the counter and saw bandits outside and James writhing in agony on the floor.

"Hey", Kenny whispered, peeking out through the door, "We can leave in the RV!"

"But what about James?"

"He can run on his own. It looks like he was shot in the shoulder, he'll be fine!"

Kenny and Sarita crawled on the floor, trying to avoid being detected by the bandits. They crawled over to where James was and tried to make him stay quiet. Kenny pulled Lilly's pistol out of his pocket in case he had to shoot any bandits and looked outside at where the RV was, only to find that some bandits had poured gasoline all over it and set it on fire!

"Well, shit. We can't use the RV, so it'd be suicide to go through the front door... we'll just have to use the back."

"What about James?!"

James was lying on the ground, now unconscious from the shock of being shot. Kenny sighed, gave Sarita a look of irritation and took James into his arms. Sarita snuck over to the door into the kitchen area and signalled Kenny to follow her. Unable to crawl with James, Kenny got up and ran, being shot at by bandits in the process. Kenny was shot in the leg when he got to the door. Sarita pulled him and James through, then closed the door and locked it.

Sarita carried Kenny out into the back area. "What about rescuing James?", Kenny asked between muffled screams of pain.

"Forget about him, I thought we could save him but we can't!"

Sarita climbed the fence with both legs and one arm, clutching Kenny tightly with the other. As soon as she got over the fence, Sarita screamed and dropped Kenny on the ground, surprised by bandits being on this side of the fence. A bandit hit Sarita in the head from behind, knocking her out. Kenny was screaming in a mixture of pain and rage. His scream was stopped suddenly when a bandit knocked him unconscious.


End file.
